Colonel Joseph G. Bruhl

Col. Joe Bruhl serves as the Deputy Director for The Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU)—a Carabinieri think-tank and training center which works in partnership with the United States Global Peace Operations Initiative to build global capacity for Peace Support Operations.

Col. Bruhl was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army in 2000 through the Reserve Officer Training Program at Truman State University. Upon graduation, he attended flight school at Fort Novosel, Alabama and completed training as an AH64D Apache Longbow helicopter pilot.

As an AH64D pilot, Colonel Bruhl led soldiers in combat as a platoon leader and staff officer with the First Cavalry Division during successive deployments to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and in Afghanistan as a Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in 2008-2009.

In 2010, Col. Bruhl began specializing in Strategy, Plans and Policy where he focused his work on stability operations and security force assistance in Africa. From 2010-2012, while on the Headquarters, Department of the Army Staff in Washington, DC, he developed security force assistance policy and wrote the U.S. Army’s first Stability Operations Self-Assessment.

From 2013-2015, Col. Bruhl served as a strategic planner at U.S. Army Africa in Vicenza, Italy where he wrote the Army’s first long-term strategy for security force assistance in Africa. From 2015-2016, Colonel Bruhl was called back to the Pentagon to serve as the speechwriter for the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, the U.S. Army’s second-most senior general officer. From 2016-2018, Colonel Bruhl then served as the lead speechwriter for General Joseph F. Dunford, the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and principal military advisor to the President of the United States.

Prior to his assignment at CoESPU, Col. Bruhl served as a senior advisor to the Commanding General of Southern European Task Force-Africa (SETAF-AF), the organization responsible for coordinating all U.S. Army operations, activities, and investments in Africa. Before assuming this role, Colonel Bruhl led SETAF-AF’s Future Plans Division where he was responsible for program development and assessment of more than $240 million worth of U.S. Army operations and activities in Africa each year.

Col. Bruhl’s military education includes the Command and General Staff College and the Basic Strategic Arts Program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Truman State University and Masters in Public Administration from Harvard.